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Home School Life Journal ........... painting by Katie Bergenholtz

"Let us strive to make each moment beautiful."

Saint Francis DeSales

Picture Study: "Impression, Sunrise" Monet

"When you paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Instead think, 'Here is a little square of blue, here is an oblong of pink, here is a streak of yellow,' and paint it just as it looks."

-Claude Monet

In our picture study, we looked at a second picture by Claude Monet, "Impression, Sunrise." I read to them about how the Impressionists came together as a group in France in the mid 1860's. The Salon was a yearly art exhibition in France. "The Salon lasted two months each year and was visited by art dealers, collectors and critics from all over the world. A panel of judges awarded prizes to painting they thought were outstanding. The jury was made up of professors from the most famous art school in the Western world, the 'Ecole des Beaux-Arts' (School of the Fine Arts). They preferred works that were painted in a style that had been used for hundreds of years. The best paintings, in their opinion, were done on large canvases, using subdued colors and well-blended brush strokes. The winners would often be commissioned by wealthy patrons to paint special pieces such as portraits. To be a successful artist meant to be successful at the Salon."* Monet and many of his friends were tired of being rejected by the Salon and decided to have an exhibition of their own. They decided to call themselves "A Limited Company of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers" or simply "The Company" for short but when the show opened the critics did not appreciate the paintings and renamed the group Impressionists for Monet's painting, "Impression, Sunrise." We compared and contrasted Monet's paintings to the paintings that went before them, and they noticed how different the Impressionistic style from what came before it, both in subject matter and execution.

We also compared and contrasted "The Garden at Sainte Addresse," the Monet painting we studied last time and "Impression, Sunrise." They noticed that although they both had Impressionistic brush strokes, "Impression, Sunrise" was much more what we think of when we think of Impressionistic paintings.

Lastly, they took a stab at painting with the wide dashes of color so characteristic of the style.More Monet resources here.

2 comments:

I want your daughter to know that she has a beautiful face!! In most of the pictures I've seen where she's in them, I just see her leaning over her work of some kind and her hair hides her beautiful face. :)